Camping

August 13, 2012

We went camping for a few days last week – nearby; no big distant trips for us this summer – and Julia spotted this little guy while she and Alex were walking back from the port-a-johns. Alex carried it back to our camp site and Bill identified it as an Eastern Box Turtle, which is actually a tortoise – a land animal – so it has claws instead of flippers.

August 18, 2009

Rain sounds lovely when you're in a tent. That gentle pitter-patter on the nylon above, while you're all snug and cozy in your blankets, high atop the hard ground on your double-thick queen-size air mattress. Ahh...roughing it.

August 17, 2009

I know I haven't even finished posting about the recent camping trip, but I had to share pictures of this little guy. Bill discovered him when he was unfolding the tent and rain-fly in our back yard so he could rinse off the dirt and hang them out to dry.

Julia immediately suggested we feed him to the lizard, but we stopped her in plenty of time.

August 15, 2009

We went away for a couple-night camping trip with the kids last summer, and since they did pretty well with that, we figured we'd shoot for a little longer this year. So we booked 4 nights, and after list-making and shopping and planning and packing, we loaded all our stuff in the truck and headed north.

The kids were excited, to say the least.

Before we left, as we were loading up pillows and blankets and food and some toys, the kids were all "Are we leaving now?" "Are we leaving NOW?" "How soon are we leaving?" "How many minutes?"

At last, we were all buckled in, and either Bill or I - in our geeky parent way - announced "We're on vacation!" (in a kind of "Wagons, Ho!" sort of way.)

August 27, 2008

After the sudden rainstorm as we left Storyland, the rain continued to fall in torrents for most of the drive back to our campsite. Fortunately the wood didn't get too wet, thanks to the thick layer of leaves above.

Julia fell asleep on the ride, so we just carried her into the tent and put her on an air mattress. She wiggled to a pillow and stayed there, never even opening her eyes. There wasn't a whole lot to do since it was raining, so Alex played with some toys while the rest of us took a nap.

A bit later, the rain had stopped, the sun was out, and it was a beautiful afternoon. Perfect for playing in the Saco.

I'll finish up this New Hampshire trip saga with pictures from that afternoon. And then I'll go back to food posts and kitten posts.

August 23, 2008

One more tale from Storyland and then I'm done with that part of the trip. Honest.

The last ride the kids went on was the Whale Tail. We'd been there for something like four hours, we'd walked all over and stood in lines and ate food and won prizes. The kids were still enthusiastic, but no longer OVER THE TOP with excitement, and Bill and I were cuted out.

Between the Polar Coaster ride I wrote about on Thursday and this Whale Tail, there were plenty of other rides, both Julia-friendly and not so much. But to be honest, I don't have anything new, ride-wise, to write about. If they spun around in circles, Julia didn't like them. Alex loved them all. That about sums it up.

But we headed up to the Whale Tail because it looked like a ride Julia would enjoy, and it was at the far end of the whole park, and looked like a good place to end our journey.

I noticed, as we climbed the slight hill to get to the ride, that there were plenty of other kids who had reached or surpassed the saturation point. Or they'd simply had way too much cotton candy and were rapidly sugar-crashing. By comparison, our kids were doing pretty well. (And trust me, I'm not saying this with any sort of "we're superior" kind of tone - it's more like relief that we made it that far for that long without anything terrible happening.)

And here's what I mean about "anything terrible."

As we rounded a little turn past a fence to get into the Whale Tail area, we passed a family (I'm assuming they were family) of 5. Mom, Dad, and 3 little kids. All the kids had on green shirts. (That's not at all significant - it's just an observation.) Mom was holding onto the double stroller. Kid #1 was sitting in one seat, just hanging out patiently. Kid #2 was sprawling way down in the seat and looked ready for a nap. And then, as I walked by, I saw Kid #3. And OH MY was this kid in need of being SOMEWHERE ELSE DESPITE HIS PERSONAL THOUGHTS ON THE MATTER.

This kid - a little boy I'm guessing around 6 years old - he was standing there sort of...rapidly shifting weight from one leg to the other...knees slightly bent...and his face was contorted, eyes wide, mouth open in an almost scream...his face was definitely RED underneath his summer tan...and his right hand...his right hand was held up, palm facing outward, and four out of five digits were curled, clawlike, down toward the palm. The other finger, yes, THAT one, was extended, and he was angrily shaking this hand back and forth at his mother.

He was a good half mile beyond meltdown.

I watched all this in about a two second time span, and then I was past them. I actually saw them moments later as they were headed away from the ride we'd arrived at. Mother was pushing the stroller. Father had Kid #3 slung across his shoulders - head to the left, feet to the right, kind of like a small deer he was bringing home to skin and portion out. The boy was immobile, all the tension gone, and I hope, for everyone's sake, that he fell asleep as soon as they strapped him in his car seat. I think they all needed some time out.

And I admit that yes, for a moment or two, I was kind of amused in a "thank goodness that's not my kid" sort of way when I saw the kid gesturing at his mother. He was at the end of his rope, maybe he wanted to go on ONE MORE RIDE, JUST ONE MORE and his parents, at the ends of their ropes, said NO. And this was the only way he could manage to convey just how upset he was about their decision. But I also felt a surge of sympathy for the parents. Because some day that could (definitely) be Julia pitching a fit, and me and Bill doing our best to just calmly and peacefully deal with the situation. Anyone with a little kid will have to go through something like this, in some form. It's a rite of passage, I think. The meltdown with the huge audience.

Anyway, Bill and the kids waited in line for this last ride, and I hung out and took pictures...

Yep. Just about done for the day.

Finally it was their turn. They climbed aboard (I think Bill let Julia choose the whale)

and a good time was had by all.

After that, it was just about time for some shaved ice for the kids (strawberry)...

(Alex wouldn't share with Bill. He's a smart boy, that one.)

(They all look just about done, don't they?)

Oh - and of course, it began to rain.

Just a drizzle at first, but enough to make us step lively back through the park and out to the parking lot.

And as we reached the parking lot, the rain started to come down harder.

And harder.

And by the time we had raced to the truck, shoved the kids into their seats and climbed damply into our own, it was a complete and total downpour.

And we had a good 20-25 minute ride to get back to our camp site and attempt to get our firewood under cover.

If it would even matter at that point.

But maybe the trees would keep a lot of the rain off our firewood.

How long would the torrent last?

Would we make it home in time for dry wood and a dinner cooked over an open fire?

Or would we - gasp! - have to eat at a local restaurant!!?? Tune in tomorrow (I think) for the final (I think) installment.

(And yeah, I admit it, part of me was hoping for the restaurant. It's just so NICE when someone else does the cleaning up afterward!)

August 21, 2008

We left the land of Nursery Rhymes and entered the Land of Princesses and Castles and Fairy Tales.

We knew it wasn't any ordinary place, because right away we saw a giant pumpkin drawn along by two hover-horses. Hover-horses, you say? Yes, that's right. They didn't have wings, so they weren't flying, but their feet never once touched the ground, so I guess you could say they hovered.

Julia reeeeeeeeeeally wanted to ride in the pumpkin, but the line waiting for it was just way too long.

We tried to console her by letting her ride on this festive pony:

It wasn't quite as magical as the pumpkin and the hover-horses, but it sufficed.

Alex took a gallop around the field as well.

We did, however, stand in line for the Swan Boats.

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The nice thing about waiting in line at Storyland, as opposed to waiting in line at other parks, is that a good portion of the line is sheltered, so you're out of the sun. We watched the people in line ahead of us get in the little boats (2 adults and 2 children max, or 1 adult and 3 kids max, according to CEO and SpokesEgg, Humpty Dumpty.)

We put life jackets on the kids, just in case (even though Alex is plenty tall enough to stand up in the 36" deep water and Julia does a mean dog paddle), and I told myself over and over that plenty of people larger than I had managed to get in and out of the swan, and that I most likely would NOT tip the whole thing over when I boarded.

Bill and Alex sat on the little bench in the front and handled the steering.

Julia sat behind them and I sat at the stern. Or tail. And took pictures, when I wasn't dizzy from Alex's talent for making our swan spin in a tight, clockwise circle. Ugh. Julia didn't like that either.

The swan boats were fun - kind of slow-moving bumper cars without the bumping. At least, without intentional bumping. Lots of young captains piloting the swans, so a few bumps were unavoidable. I liked the swan boats. I could have done without the spinning part, but otherwise, it was sort of nice and peaceful to be floating around on the water.

Next up?

Again with the horses.

Bill took the kids on the merry-go-round. Julia, especially, was SO excited.

The horses, as you can read in the sign above, were all hand-carved, and most interestingly, they are on springs, rather than on poles that move up and down.

You can have as rough or as smooth a ride as you want.

Both kids (and Bill, though he won't smile in any kind of relaxed manner if he knows the camera is on him) had a great time...

Julia seemed to think she was in a parade...

She wasn't so much waving to me as she was waving to EVERYONE along her personal parade route.

(Is it a bad thing to be jealous of your daughter's hair? Mine used to be like hers...back before pregnancy hormones went and changed it. I'd read somewhere - some list of old wives' tales - that baby girls "steal" their mothers' hair. I believe that one.)

I love it when my kids are having fun together.

After the carousel, we were all hot and thirsty (horseback riding will do that to you) (so will standing nearby snapping pictures in the sun) so we headed over to one of the many snack bars and got beverages for the four of us.

Next, we started to head off to the next section - "A Child's Visit to Other Lands" - but Julia spotted a creature in need of assistance and stopped to help.

It was a little green and fluffy caterpillar. Or "paterkillar" as Julia called it. She had to save it from probable death-by-footsteps.

Here is the entrance to the international portion of Storyland:

As you can see, the focus is all on the caterpillar. Shortly after this shot, Julia and Alex took it to a nearby tree and released it back into the wild.

Standing right at this entrance to the other lands, we could hear the voices of a chorus of children singing some sort of happy "we're all children even though we're different" kind of song - something like "It's a Small World" only not, because that's the property of Disney, isn't it?

Bill said it reminded him of the scene in Shrek when Shrek and Donkey arrive in Dulac (sp?) and there's that little song sung by those little wooden puppet-like children "Welcome to Dulac/it's a perfect town/here we have some rules/let us lay them down/know your place/stay in line/and we'll get/along fine/Dulac is a perfect place..." (Scary how I was able to just reel the lyrics off without a thought, isn't it. I could recite everything from The Jungle Book, too, but it's not applicable here.)

ANYWAY...

We entered the Many Lands section and basically headed straight for this place:

Woo hoo! Competing against your own children for prizes! We were the only ones in there initially, and in order to move your horse along the race track, you roll a ball up a slanted surface so it will drop into one of a bunch of holes at the other end. The holes have a numeric value - 1, 2 or 3, and that determines how far your horse will advance. It took a while to kind of get the hang of it, but it was fun - all four of us sitting there, rolling little balls like our lives depended on it. The best part was the kid running the game. Just some high school kid, this is his summer job, you know, and he's just there for the paycheck. But he actually got into it - calling the race like a slightly self-conscious sports commentator. He was funny, and the whole experience was probably my favorite part of Storyland. Nothing big, just a simple game that all four of us played together.

Oh, and I won. Heh heh. But that doesn't have anything to do with my fond memories of the game. Not at all.

Actually, we played a second game. I gave my winnings (I could choose a frisbee, a clown (I think) or a little horse. No brainer. I picked the horse and gave it to Julia. We played a second game so Alex could get something, too. I know, I know, you should actually have to WIN to get a prize, but...well...we were just having fun.

The second game was more tension-filled than the first, however, because some other girl came in and played, too. Bill had figured out that his long arms were an advantage - he could roll the ball from closer to the holes and have a bit better chance of hitting the holes he wanted. I had horrible luck that round, so it was up to Bill to win for the family, as I didn't think we could convince the girl to give her toy to Alex if she won. I kept one eye on the horses as they advanced across the track above, and I actually found myself NEARLY screaming at Bill to HURRY UP! because the girl's horse was catching up to his.

Thank goodness he won. Alex got a purple monkey. They had those at the other end of the room - I hadn't seen them when I won. Not that I would have picked one anyway.

So, yay, each kid had a little toy, and the family honor was intact.

They also had a "shooting gallery" right next door to the horse race building - but - I don't know, I realize we don't want to encourage our children to go around shooting things...but somehow a shooting gallery where you are shooting PHOTOGRAPHS of things is quite as fun as pinging the targets with a real pretend gun. Which is probably why no one was playing.

Okay, one more adventure for this post.

The next ride anyone went on was the Polar Coaster. Yes, you guessed it, a rollercoaster with an arctic theme. Bill went on with the kids and I ran around to different spots to find the best vantage points for my pictures. I could have gone on, but then I wouldn't have been able to SEE their faces.

Here they are, on board, coming out of the underground loading dock...

All three were excited as they slowly chugged up the first rise. They didn't know I was there, peering through the fence above them. As they rode upward, I ran around to the "observation deck" area.

Up they went, and Julia was doing fine...

until about now. When the ride started getting, um, rollercoastery. You can see Bill leaning down to give Julia a pep talk of some sort.

It's not working.

Nope. She's not having a good time at all, poor thing.

Alex, on the other hand, had a blast. And he spotted me standing here, so I've got a whole series of his delighted face as he swings by. I don't know who Mr. Boston Red Sox hat is, but he kept pointing at me. Unless someone he knew was right behind me. Oh well. He seemed to be having fun, too.

Hi Alex!

And then I raced down from the observation deck and around to the other little area where I could probably get a couple shots.

Here they come...

I see two "oh, man, the ride's over" faces and one "it's almost over, it's almost over, it's almost over" face up above.

August 20, 2008

So we pay our $24.00 flat fee per person and are permitted entry into Storyland. The fee allows you to ride all the rides, however many times you want, all day. This is 35 ACRES of land, folks. And about twenty zillion rides. So we felt it was a pretty good deal.

The first section we entered was THE Storyland area. It was charmingly and cleverly done - all sorts of interactive displays based on Mother Goose nursery rhymes.

Cute and charming.

But then, right away, there's this guy.

Julia is trying to befriend the unfortunately big-headed lad, but Alex...well, he was raised to be polite, and he's trying, but you can see he's not all that interested in hanging with Master Dumpty for too much longer.

You can't tell from my photos - they weren't timed right - but young Humpty's eyes move. Back and forth, back and forth. Julia seems to have noticed this, and Alex...Alex is silently imploring us to please let him get far, far away from egg-headed boy.

I can't say as I blame Alex. I find that if I stare too long at Humpty Dumpty's face, I expect that it will contort into some expression of evil, like the Sta-Puft Marshmallow man. Or Chucky.

We moved on.

There were several displays like this one, with little verses and accompanying farm animals:

And this one:

(The Three Little Pigs, in case you were unsure. Each house had the little pig's name on it, and I gound it interesting that, unlike in the story, all three pigs were GIRLS! Just one more example of the subordination of women back in the day. Even female pigs had to dress up and pretend they were male if they hoped to get anywhere in the world. Tsk tsk.

There was also a little set-up of the Three Billy Goats Gruff, but unfortunately none of the goats were all that adventurous about heading over the bridge. In fact, they were all kind of snoozing in the sun. And none of them had horns or any size. And...once again, I think they were all girls.

It's a shame when the veil is torn away and we are forced to see our storybook heroes for who they really are. Or aren't. Or something. I don't know, I'm being overly dramatic.

Here's Julia skipping over the famed and crumbling London Bridge...

Fortunately for our family, it wasn't falling down, falling down, falling down at the time, and Julia made it safely to the other side.

Phew!

And here we have the main characters from the story of Little Black Sambo. Yes - that's what it was called when I was a child, and I didn't know from stereotypes back then, so I didn't really think about the characters' names or any of that. I just thought it was fascinating that (SPOILER ALERT!) the tigers ran around and around and around and turned (or churned) themselves into butter at the end. THAT was way more memorable to me than anything considered controversial in later years. At Storyland (and yes, I kick myself daily for not photographing the little hand-lettered verse) I think they left off the "Black" part, and if I remember correctly, one tiger and the little boy actually became homeys and went on to have a rather successful recording career.

As you can see by the picture below.

Unfortunately, Sam went the MJ route and had a few too many skin-bleaching treatments, and el tigre, fed up with what he thought was his buddy's denial of his true self, broke up the band and applied for a job with Seigfried and Roy, but, alas, was told his fur was too dark. Disgusted with showbiz completely, he retired to Switzerland skiing, baking cookies, and entering yodeling competitions.

Moving on...

The first ride anyone went on was the fast and furious Teacup Ride over in the Alice in Wonderland area. Julia didn't want to ride in a big teacup, so she and I hung out while Bill and Alex waited in line with other combinations of parents and children.

This is the sign that was posted at the entrance to the ride:

Yep.

Humpty Dumpty's Guide to Safe Fun.

I didn't realize Humpty Dumpty was the CEO of Storyland. I thought he'd had that Great Fall and never recovered, despite the best efforts of All The King's Horses and All The King's Men. (Not sure what the horses could have done for him anyway, but whatever, it was before my time, things were different back then.)

Apparently, Anakin-like, Humpty was able to live on in some sort of mechanized armor and go on to rule the amusement park.

His marketing people must have advised that he use old, pre-fall photos for the signage and for his likeness at the entrance to the park. You know, so as not to terrify the children.

Humpty apparently has rather odd rules about who can ride in his china.

As you can see by the little pictures at the bottom of the sign, the following are not permitted entry into the teacups: Misshapen blonde women...dark-skinned women with babies...stick figures...crippled people...carcinogens...overpriced beverages and foods...poorly designed wine glasses and antibiotics, and poverty-stricken mice begging from toilets.

Julia hung out with the locals while Alex and Bill - neither of whom was forbidden from riding, according to the signage - hopped aboard the spinning dinnerware.

Of the two...

It's hard to tell who had more fun.

As fun as Wonderland had been, once the ride was over, it was time to move along...

August 19, 2008

We didn't do a whole lot the first night there, other than cook dinner (hot dogs and baked beans) and then s'mores once it was dark.

Sleeping was...for me...more an activity than a time of rest. I couldn't fall asleep for the longest time, so I lay there on our very comfy double-thick air mattress, listening to everyone else sleep. And when I finally did doze off, I was awakened by Julia (of course), whimpering over on the air mattress she was sharing with Alex. I squinted over at her and she had, in her sleep, wriggled out of her sheets and blankets and quilt and was lying, curled up, on top of it all in the chilly night air. I tried to cover her up, but eventually she woke up and wanted to come in bed with me. That was the beginning of the end of any hope for real sleep. I let her in, so I was sandwiched between my slumbering husband and my slumbering daughter (once she was snuggled next to me she went right back to sleep). I lay awake. Cozy and warm, yes, but also - awake. A bit later, Alex woke up with a stuffy nose and a need for tissues. I didn't know where they were so I gave him some paper towels and listened to him blow his nose. He hasn't quite got the hang of that yet. His technique is rather ineffective. Anyway, then he couldn't sleep, he was cold or something, so I wiggled out from between Bill and Julia and crawled in beside Alex. He feel asleep, mouth open, breathing on me with middle-of-the-night breath (akin to morning breath, but not fermented quite as long) and somehow I finally fell asleep again. Briefly. Moments later (it seemed) Julia woke up, got out of my bed and saw that - just like in the three bears - someone was sleeping on HER side of the bed! So she was grumpy about that for a minute until I nudged Alex over a bit and made room for Julia. So I was once again the sandwich filling. Mr. Midnight-Breath snoring on one side of me, and Ms. Teeth-Grinder on the other. I stared at the top of the tent. Must have been a full moon, because it sure was bright out there. I dozed off again and next thing I knew Julia was AWAKE and READY TO START HER DAY.

She's been like that a lot lately. So much so that if she thinks everyone else (usually Bill and Alex) should be UP and ABOUT, she'll go upstairs, from one bedroom to the next, turning on the overhead lights and singing at their tightly closed eyes:

Good morning! Good morning! It's a happy day to-day!

Over and over. And over. It doesn't always sit well with the men-folk.

But back to NH.

Eventually, the need to cross the campground to the bathrooms won out over the need to stay cozy under the blankets, so soon all four of us were up. Bill got a fire going so I could cook breakfast (see Part 1), and the kids prowled around in their pajamas for a bit.

They loved exploring.

Morning on the Saco River.

I loved this view. Backlit, with different shades of lighter greens against the darker distant trees.

There was a good deal of mud around.

And after breakfast, it was time to get dressed and set out for Storyland...

My pictures don't do the scenery justice - the mountains were gorgeous.

Oh - and that yellow sign to the right? It says "Moose Crossing." We saw a lot of those signs, but nary a moose.

Finally, after a long, "are we almost there?" 16 mile excursion...

we arrived at Storyland.

(I'll save that for the next installment. Or maybe the next two or three.)

August 18, 2008

I promise I'll get back to food-related content soon - if not later today then definitely tomorrow, since it'll be Tuesdays with Dorie time once again.

But just in case anyone is seriously hungry (haha) for a food photo, here you go:

This is Alex (really?) eating a piece of watermelon. The (free) watermelon was sort of an appetizer while we waited for our burgers (kids) and pulled BBQ pork sandwiches (Bill and me)...

which we got at a little roadside place called Bear Bones Barbecue

I even got over my hideous shyness and asked the owner if I could take a picture of the little building. You can't really see him well, but that's the chief cook and bottle washer, right there in the little window.

As you can see, the whole "bear" theme was going strong.

The burgers were pretty straightforward - burgers on rolls. Alex had ketchup. Julia had ketchup because Bill thought she wanted some, but she apparently DIDN'T want any after all, so I scraped it off.

The pulled pork was pretty tasty, a bit on the tomatoey side, but still - for a tiny little roadside place - not bad.

It wasn't until the next day or maybe even the day after that Bill told me he'd found a gray hair in his pulled pork sandwich. He didn't say anything at the time - I've forgotten why. I know. EEEEEWWW!

But anyway - you want food? YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE FOOD!

Sorry.

Here are my other food shots:

This is bacon that I'm cooking over our open fire. I'm quite the outdoorswoman.

And, last but not least, this is Alex, polishing off his share of the bacon and pancakes we had for breakfast that morning. He loves his pancakes.

Oh, and yes, see that pan to the left? With those strange white blobs? Those are the next batch of pancakes. The pan is kind of warped, so the batter flowed down around the edges of the pan. I was making small pancakes because, as you can see - small plates.

Anyway, that is the extent of the food pictures. Oh, well actually there will be some shots of the kids eating strawberry-flavored shaved ice eventually, but I'm sorry, I just don't count that as food.

~~~~~

The day we arrived (after our roadside dining), I only took 2 more pictures. The rest of the daylight hours were spent helping put up the tent, unload the truck, and take a nap while Bill took the kids off to play in the river. (I had a headache most of the day - it was horrible and would NOT subside).

Anyway - for these two shots, I'm standing about midway along a path that went from the back of our camp site to the Saco River.

First, looking down (there was a little hill between the site and the river) at the truck and Bill and Alex:

And in the opposite direction - the Saco River:

No, it's not muddy - it's actually incredibly clean - the tan color is the sand and gravel on the river bed. Gorgeous, gorgeous clear water flowing by....

(In case you were wondering, yes, Julia was with us on this trip - for some reason she just isn't in any of the pictures I shot that first day.)

~~~~~

And that's where I have to end it for now - this morning I am bringing ALL THREE of the cats (well, two kittens, one cat) to the vet. The babies are getting their next round of shots, plus an analysis of their most recent um...litterbox samples...to make sure the coccidosis is gone. And Blur hasn't been to the vet in a while (she's an indoor cat, and she's impressively healthy) so I figured she should go in and have a checkup too, since I was going to be there anyway.